Working position measuring system

• US 7,110,102 B2
• Filed: 12/10/2003
• Issued: 09/19/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 12/26/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Topcon
• Original Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Topcon
• Inventors: Osaragi, Kazuki, Ohtomo, Fumio, Hayashi, Kunihiro
• Primary Examiner(s): Tarcza, Thomas H.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Ratcliffe, Luke
• Application Number:
  US10/732,145
• Publication Number:
  US 20040125365A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,014 Days
• Field of Search: 356/141.4
• US Class Current: 356/141.4
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 15/002 Active optical surveying means optical plumbing G01C15/105
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/43 using carrier phase measurements, e.g. kinematic positioning; using long or short baseline interferometry
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0072 Transmission between mobile stations, e.g. anti-collision systems
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/16 using electromagnetic waves other than radio waves

Abstract

A working position measuring system, comprising a rotary laser device for irradiating and rotating a laser beam and a photodetection sensor device for receiving the laser beam and for detecting a working position, wherein the rotary laser device comprises a laser projector for projecting at least two fan-shaped beams with at least one beam tilted, and the photodetection sensor device comprises at least one photodetection unit for receiving the fan-shaped beams and an arithmetic unit for calculating an elevation angle relative to the rotary laser device based on photodetection signals produced when the photodetection unit receives the light beam.

Claims

1. A working position measuring system, comprising a rotary laser device for irradiating and rotating a laser beam and a photodetection sensor device for receiving the laser beam and for detecting a working position, wherein said rotary laser device comprises a laser projector for projecting at least two fan-shaped beams with at least one beam tilted, and a rotator for irradiating and rotating said fan-shaped beams, and said photodetection sensor device comprises at least one photodetection unit for receiving said fan-shaped beams, and a GPS position measuring device in a predetermined positional relation with said photodetection unit, and for detecting a position of said photodetection sensor device, a storage unit for storing positional information of said rotary laser device and an arithmetic unit, wherein said arithmetic unit obtains a distance from said rotary laser device to said photodetection device from said stored positional information and the detected position of said GPS position measuring device, calculates an elevation angle relative to said rotary laser device based on photodetection signals produced when said photodetection unit receives the light beam, and obtains a height of said photodetection sensor device from said elevation angle and said distance.

2. A working position measuring system according to claim 1, wherein said laser projector has a diffraction grating, and said diffraction grating divides the incident laser beam to at least two fan-shaped beams.

3. A working position measuring system according to claim 1, wherein said photodetection sensor device comprises an imput unit, and positional information of said rotary laser device is stored in said storage unit through said the imput unit.

4. A working position measuring system according to claim 1, wherein said GPS position measuring device which said photodetection sensor device comprises is a first GPS position measuring device, and said rotary laser device comprises a second GPS position measuring device for specifying an installation position of said rotary laser device and communication equipment for transmitting the installation position of said rotary laser device to said photodetection sensor device, the installation position of said rotary laser device is stored in said storage unit as positional information.

5. A working position measuring system according to claim 4, wherein said second GPS position measuring device preforms status surveying with a third GPS position measuring device installed at a position other than the position of said first GPS position measuring device, an unknown reference point is specified, and the position of said photodetection sensor device is calculated based on a coordinate position of said specified unknown reference point and the detection of said first GPS position measuring device.

6. A working position measuring system according to claim 1 or 4, wherein said photodetection sensor device and said GPS position measuring device installed on the photodetection sensor device side are operated with an excavation control unit of a construction machine, and a height position of excavation at a working position is controlled based on the height detected or calculated by said photodetection sensor device.

7. A working position measuring system according to claim 1 or 4, wherein said photodetection sensor device and said GPS position measuring device installed on said photodetection sensor device side are operated with an excavation control unit of a construction machine having working position information, and a height position of excavation at the working position is controlled based on a height detected or calculated by said photodetection sensor device.